1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a component verification method that is used for mounting electronic components by a mounter, and particularly to a component verification method utilizing an integrated circuit (IC) tag.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mounters that mount electronic components onto boards such as printed boards are required to perform verification to see if correct components have been placed on a component cassette before mounting operation. Conventional mounters include one that performs component verification by use of information such as component names and the number of components represented as barcodes (for example, see Japanese Patent publication No. 2932670).
A barcode is attached to a reel around which a component tape is wound. Before component verification is carried out, information contained in a barcode is read by a barcode reader to be written into a memory. Note that memory is included in each component cassette to which a reel is loaded. With this construction, it is possible to automatically perform component verification by scanning the memory of each cassette by use of a memory reader and thus to find setting errors of component cassettes.
Here, the expression “component tape” refers to a tape (a carrier tape) on which a number of the same type of components have been arranged, with such tape being supplied from a reel (a supply reel) or the like around which the tape has been wound. Furthermore, components supplied by a component tape are sometimes called “taped components”.
However, there is a problem with the conventional mounter in that it is necessary, prior to component verification, to transport barcode information to the memory of each component cassette for each type of tapes to be used. In general, the number of component tape types to be handled by one mounter is 20 to 50, and sometimes amounts to 100, and thus, it is troublesome for workers to transport barcode information to the memory of each component cassette for each of all such types of component tapes.
Furthermore, in order to perform component verification, it is necessary to move the memory of each component cassette close to the read unit of a mounter or to move the read unit itself at the start of a mounting operation, and then read information stored in the memory of each component cassette by scanning. This requires time for performing a component verification operation and thus causes a problem that operating loss occurs. Furthermore, it is also a problem that misplacement of components cannot be discovered until a scan operation gets started by the above read unit, i.e., a machine is put into operation.
Moreover, the conventional mounter is required to prepare a component library beforehand, which causes another problem that extra labor hours are required for generating a component library. “Component library” is a collection of information (e.g. component names, component sizes, component colors and component shapes) about each of all the component types that can be handled by a mounter. Without such information about components to be mounted, a mounter cannot mount such components.
The present invention has been conceived in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a component verification method for a mounter that enables component verification to be performed with less labor.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a component verification method for a mounter that causes fewer operating losses at the time of component mounting.
Further, another object of the present invention is to provide a component library generation method for a mounter that requires little labor.